Every time surgeons operate, they're betting their skills are better than the brain tumor, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur. Sometimes, they're wrong. At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference, known as M & M. This extraordinary peek behind the curtain into what is considered the most secretive meeting in all of medicine is the back drop for the entire book.

From a case of hysterical paralysis to a pregnancy puncturing a lung, twenty-five of the most thrilling medical mysteries known to man (and doctor)."Vital Signs," a popular column featured in Discover Magazine, has long been a favorite of readers, showcasing, each month, fascinating new tales of strange illnesses and diseases that baffle doctors and elude diagnosis. Each tale is true and borders on the unbelievable. It's no wonder that throughout the years the column has become an unofficial textbook for medical students, interns, doctors, and anyone interested in human illness and staying healthy.

One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine

An epic story told by a unique voice in Ameri­can medicine, One Doctor describes life-changing experiences in the career of a distinguished physi­cian. In riveting first-person prose, Dr. Brendan Reilly takes us to the front lines of medicine today.

Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds

In this riveting book, Dr. Sanjay Gupta - neurosurgeon, chief medical correspondent for CNN, and best-selling author- chronicles the almost unbelievable science that has made these seemingly miraculous recoveries possible. A bold new breed of doctors has achieved amazing rescues by refusing to accept that any life is irretrievably lost. Extended cardiac arrest, "brain death," not breathing for over an hour-all these conditions used to be considered inevitably fatal, but they no longer are.

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year

In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor - the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients.

Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist

The psychiatric emergency room, a fast-paced combat zone with pressure to match, thrusts its medical providers into the outland of human experience where they must respond rapidly and decisively in spite of uncertainty and, very often, danger. In this lively first-person narrative, Paul R. Linde takes listeners behind the scenes at an urban psychiatric emergency room, with all its chaos and pathos, where we witness mental health professionals doing their best to alleviate suffering.

The Undead: Organ Harvesting, The Ice-Water Test, Beating Heart Cadavers - How Medicine Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Death

Important and provocative, The Undead examines why even with the tools of advanced technology, what we think of as life and death, consciousness and nonconsciousness, is not exactly clear - and how this problem has been further complicated by the business of organ harvesting.

Coma

They called it "minor surgery", but Nancy Greenly, Sean Berman, and a dozen others - all admitted to Boston Memorial Hospital for routine procedures - were victims of the same inexplicable, hideous tragedy on the operating table. They never woke up...

Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician

Michelle Williams, an attractive young woman with close family ties and an active social life, describes her first extraordinary year in her unusual new job as a mortuary technician. It’s a year in which, with innate good humour, she encounters death at its most tragic, bizarre, and hilarious. Her tale, neither gruesome nor sad, is enlivened by a range of colourful and eccentric characters, from pathologists and coroners to hospital porters and undertakers, giving us a glimpse of life - and death - that few of us will ever experience.

The Blood Betrayal

When hematologist Dr. Carl Martin is called into a Little Rock emergency room, not even his expertise can save Benjamin Rasco from bleeding to death. But why did the man die? His condition shouldn't have been fatal. And no one should have such bizarre red blood cells.

Something for the Pain: Compassion and Burnout in the ER

In this eye-opening account of life in the ER, Paul Austin recalls how the daily grind of long, erratic shifts and endless hordes of patients with sad stories sent him down a path of bitterness and cynicism. Gritty, powerful, and ultimately redemptive, Something for the Pain is a revealing glimpse into the fragility of compassion and sanity in the industrial setting of today’s hospitals.

Lifelines: Angels of Mercy

A gripping behind-the-scenes drama of four women who face life and death every day. On her first day at Pittsburgh's Angels of Mercy Medical Center, L.A. - transplant Lydia Fiore, the new ER attending physician, loses a patient: the Chief of Surgery's son. Now, to save her career, Lydia must discover the truth behind her patient's death, even as it leads her into unfamiliar - and risky - territory.

Girl Missing

She's young. She's beautiful. And her corpse, laid out in the office of Boston medical examiner Cat Novak, betrays no secrets - except for a notebook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside. When a second victim is discovered, Cat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the city streets: a shadowy madman without mercy or apparent motive. The police are sceptical. The mayor won't listen. And Cat's chief suspect is one of the city's most prominent citizens.

Publisher's Summary

Every time surgeons operate, they're betting their skills are better than the brain tumor, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur. Sometimes, they're wrong. At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference, known as M & M. This extraordinary peek behind the curtain into what is considered the most secretive meeting in all of medicine is the back drop for the entire book.

Monday Mornings, by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, follows the lives of five surgeons at Chelsea General as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings, often in front of their peers at M & M. It is on Monday mornings that reflection and introspection occurs, usually in private. It is Monday Mornings that provides a unique look at the real method in which surgeons learn - through their mistakes. It is Monday Mornings when, if you're lucky, you have a chance at redemption.

Sorry, but although I enjoy Dr. Gupta on the news, an author he is not. This is yet another thin "novel" from a doctor wanna be author. While Dr. Gupta is very impressed with the medical profession, (and neurosurgery in particular), there really is no clear plot line. Instead, the book serves as a vehicle for Gupta to relive cases and other tales from medical school. Along the way he expounds on the problems with healthcare, the trouble with medical sales people, lifestyle choices, and on and on. The only problem is - they do nothing to advance or develop A PLOT. So yes, I am calling it - Dead on Arrival.

I wanted this book to be good. I gave it a good try, listening to more than 4 hours of it. I really enjoyed Cutting For Stone and had read that the two authors had some similarities. The authors may (I believe that they are both physicians), but the stories are in no way comparable. I found Monday Mornings nothing short of stupid. I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a movie for the Lifetime Network.

This was a shockingly disappointing book in its scope, its depth, its characters, its structure and its genre. I was hoping for an informative, in depth examination of modern medicine, like "Better" by Atul Gawande, but this slow, uninteresting novel rarely discusses disease, surgery or medicine, its far more concerned with the mundane lives of its characters. That's not why I purchased this novel. If I'm honest with you, I thought by reading the description and knowing who the author is, that it was a work of non-fiction. It's not, this is a fictional character study about the lives of surgeons. Not at ALL what the description promised.

Monday Mornings follows the lives of several surgeons at a Michigan hospital and examines their personal lives, the way their careers affect them and how they handle mistakes. These plot lines rarely become exciting and rarely rise above the kind of TV drama conflict that I try to avoid in a good novel. The time spent here wastes time that could describe the business and practice of surgery, the techniques involved, the mysteries we have yet to uncover and the breakthroughs that we have made recently. I was very sad for the book this COULD have been. Move on to the next book in your Wishlist instead.

If you could sum up Monday Mornings in three words, what would they be?

Enlightening, well-paced, eye-opening.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Monday Mornings?

Wrong site surgery at the end of the book.

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

Excellent interpretation. Two areas in need of improvement: a more defined pause between scenes - sometimes two distinct scenes ran into each other. I'm sure this was editing and not Mr. Rummel's performance. But the second area for improvement is Mr. Rummel's interpretation of female voices. Almost without exception, they brought to mind Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. This was a significant annoyance for me.However, overall, very enjoyable listening.

There were too many characters that were underdeveloped and uninteresting. He should have developed a few characters more in depth. Also, I don't think the author brought any drama to the M&M conferences. Flat and uninspiring.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sanjay Gupta again?

I might

Which character – as performed by Christian Rummel – was your favorite?

Vinueva (sorry if spelled wrong---audio, you know)

Did Monday Mornings inspire you to do anything?

Go back to my regular favorite fiction authors

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed. This sounded like it was going to be a great book. I've worked in the medical field, and it could have been really interesting, given the topic. I've also known real neurosurgeons, and they are usually more arrogant and not so friendly to each other.An interesting theme wasted.

Nothing ever really got up and going in the story. I didn't get to a point where I asked, "What will happen next," but got to, "Will anything happen?" Built for an ensemble cast on a cable television network trying for credibility as a content supplier. I might be stupid, but it seemed like vignettes coupled by setting, not plot.

Has Monday Mornings turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. I'm sort of a sucker for medical drama, thriller or comedy.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christian Rummel’s performances?

I'll give a long listen to the sample before I plunk down my credit for a book he narrates. His female voices sounded contrived and strained, but strangely the interior dialogue of the same character seemed genuine and was where the director should have taken him.

Any additional comments?

This served well as the treatment for TNT's "Monday Mornings". It's kind of... I don't know what... couldn't they have distributed it for free given they (Gupta and Kelly) had a deal with Turner.

I wait avidly for new medical mystery fiction. I found the realism of so many areas in medicine refreshing. I would definitely recommend this book

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Several of the plot twists hinged on the fallibility of human judgment.

Any additional comments?

As a retired anesthesiologist, I questioned where the anesthesiologist was during the anesthesia history and physical which might well have elicited a red flag for the first brain surgery. I decided they must have shared negligence. I also wondered where the entire operating room team was for the

Although I like the author on CNN, his charisma does not translate onto the pages. The story was ho-hum, not much of a plot line and he wrapped it all up too quickly - like he was tired of writing this book and wanted to get it over with. Characters were not compelling and nothing much to keep you motivated to listen longer or wish for another novel.

Has Monday Mornings turned you off from other books in this genre?

NO - but would not get another book from this author. Robin Cook or Michael Crichton were far better medical writers.

Have you listened to any of Christian Rummel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.